Sunday, 30 October 2016

HARARE residents are likely to endure a tight water rationing regime
as the city council is planning on installing water inflow limiters to
cut households’ consumption by half.The
local authority’s acting water director Engineer Hosiah Chisango said
this scheme will be implemented in 2017 to conserve water following
concerns that residents are “overusing water.” According to the city
council, an average family of six in the city’s high density suburbs is
using between 800 and 850 litres of water per day — a figure which is
high when compared to other users in the region.Council wants residents to consume around 400 litres per day. Eng
Chisango said, “In the long run we are considering installing flow
limiters in all households and this will go a long way in conserving
water. For instance, if the water limit for a particular area is 300 per
day, once a household reaches that limit it cuts off and water supplies
continue the following day. “An average family in Zimbabwe uses about
850 litres per day and some in the low density suburbs can use even 1
500 litres per day and we think we can reduce that, even by half.“We are working on replacing pipes so as to reduce water leakages.
Africa Development Bank is funding the programme and currently they are
processing tenders so that contractors can begin pipe replacement in
November.”Harare recently introduced a rationing schedule which has seen some residential suburbs going for five days without water.

According to the latest weekly report released by Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (Zinwa) last week, Harava and Seke Dams were at 0
percent while Chivero was at 48 percent and Manyame had 78 percent
water. Lake Chivero and Manyame can last 18 months under the current
rationing schedule.Harare has already introduced pre-paid water meters which are meant
to conserve water consumption through consumer self-management.
However, residents and human rights organisations have criticised the
water pre-paid meters, citing rights to accessing water.